Some links about working with Archives – advice and guides. This is a work-in-progress page and I’ll add other things that look useful. Suggestions welcome.
The National Archives, How to use archives
Mary Morrisey, Royal Historical Society, Working in Archives
Laura Schmdt, Using Archives: A Guide to Effective Research
Getting started with archival research from the Royal Geographical Society
Top ten tips for researching in archives from the Royal Geographical Society
Judith Walkowitz, On Taking Notes at Perspectives on History
Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick, Interpreting Archives
Will Pooley, Doing Archival Research
Kate Stewart – series at Medium
Lesley A. Hall, Archival Matters – a lot of links and commentary from a historian and archivist
Karin Wulf, Archival Shouting: Silence and Volume in Collections and Institutions
Marc Reyes, Why Do Historians Still Have To Go To Archives? (2019)
Sarah Calise, Why Do Archivists Get Rid Of Things (And Enjoy It)? (2022)
Archives FAQs and Facts – Peeling the Past
Alessandro Silvestri, Making History through Archives (review of Stéphane Péquignot et Yann Potin (dir.), Les conflits d’archives : France, Espagne, Méditerranée, Presses universitaires de Rennes)
Jamie Bryson, ‘Russian History without Russia: Archive Encounters in an Era of Restricted Access,’ Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (2025), 1–12 (open access)
Innes Keighren, “MacIntosh in the Eternal City”, https://inneskeighren.com/williammacintosh/?p=1538 (about working with archives in the Vatican)
I’m sure there are plenty of useful books about how to work with archives, but the one I enjoyed the most was Arlette Farge, Le Goût de l’archive/The Allure of the Archives.
There are some Writings and Publishing posts and links on this site, as well as a lot of more specialist research resources on Foucault, Lefebvre and other thinkers and topics.
